Birth of a Rebel

So - I've never written a birth story of any of my kids.  But as this is most likely my last chance (3 was our magic number for kiddos) and since I realized as I got close to my due date that I couldn't REALLY remember much about the girl's births - I decided I wanted to write this one down - to remember years from now.

Drama Queen came into this world on her own timeframe (10 days past my due date. .. which was 2 weeks past my original due date. . .it may have been the longest pregnancy in the history of the world).  But when she decided to come - she came in a hurry.  I remember my first contraction hitting at 10:30 am on Saturday September 15, 2001.  I was sitting in the living room, eating a bowl of dry fruit loops and staring at the baby swing and I thought "ouch. that kind of hurt a bit."  When the next contraction came a whopping 3 minutes later, I thought it couldn't be real labor b/c those contractions were too close together at the onset.  I was wrong.  By the time I decided they were real and drove to the hospital 5 minutes from our house. . .they were less than 2 minutes apart and I was 5 cm along.  Drama arrived at 4:45 after 3 whole pushes and no epidural.

Mischief arrived by induction 2 weeks BEFORE her due date - dictated  by two factors:  1 - she was measuring small and the doctors worried she wasn't thriving in the womb and needed to get out and 2 - based on my super fast labor with Drama, the doctors (and F and I as well) worried that if I went into labor on my own, I wouldn't make it to the hospital (that was now an hour drive away if we didn't hit traffic).  I remember thinking that the induction wasn't much worse than regular labor - but I couldn't remember how to breathe through the contractions this time and ended up hyperventilating a bit and having to have oxygen. But again - once she decided to come, she showed up fast - 3 pushes,  no epidural, about 5.5 hours of labor on August 12, 2005.

The Rebel was also an induction - although I certainly didn't want that again. I wanted the idea of a totally natural labor - of being able to walk, use a birthing ball, the massaging shower.  However, Rebel was also measuring small and while the doctor and midwife weren't too worried, they were keeping close tabs on him as well.  Additionally - we have been dealing with some small medical drama with Mischief as well (more on that later) and decided that scheduling the induction so we could schedule the rest of what we needed to schedule for Mischief - was the best thing for our whole family.

So - on the morning of Feb 20, 2012 - F and I walked into the hospital at 6 am to start the induction.  The original plan was to just break my water and see if that would kick start things - without pitocin - but for some reason (I'm still not totally sure?  Cervix position maybe?) the doctor changed her mind and I got pitocin and my water broken at 7:30 am.   Before they even started that - they noticed I was having contractions about 2 min apart - but they weren't strong enough to be uncomfortable.  The pitocin did its magic and things progressed along - I managed to remember to breathe this time as the contractions got stronger and closer together.  I remember being uncomfortably hot the entire time. . .I had the nurses turn the AC to something below "arctic", had ice packs on my neck and a fan blowing on me.  My entourage sat huddled under coats and blankets staring at me like I was crazy. The contractions stayed between 2 and 3 min apart for the duration of my labor and I remember thinking that I would love to take a 5 min break to be able to catch my breath.  Of course, that didn't happen, and by the time 12:15 rolled around, my peaceful "hummmmmmmmm" through the contraction was much more of a moan and a whimper.  At 12:15 I was 8 cm, fully effaced, he had finally dropped to a zero position and I was DONE. DONE. DONE.  I couldn't catch my breath between my contractions (now 1 min apart or less) and I remember thinking I wasn't going to have any energy to push.  I asked for the epidural.

My nurses were awesome - springing into action and within minutes had me sitting up on the side of the bed, the anesthesiologist in the room, and my midwife notified.  However, some piece of paperwork had been misplaced and they told me to lay back down for a min while they found it - I managed to get  back on my side before telling them I had to push - they checked and I was right - 10 cm, 100% and a plus 2 station.  My midwife walked into the room just in time to have someone tie on her gown and catch the guy as he came out.  I remember pushing once and them telling me the head was out and to stop pushing.  She wanted me to "ease" him the rest of the way out.  I told her I had NO IDEA how to do that.  At that moment, I just wanted him out.  I panted through the next contraction and he was out.   I took him just as he was - gross and screaming his head off - and held him close to me.   My perfect little Rebel. 6 lbs, 6 oz, 19" long - born at 12:35 pm on 2/20/12.